When I was a kid, I used to always forget my house key and would have to resort to climbing a ladder and crawling through our kitchen window to let myself back into our house after school. I’m sure my mom got very tired of me knocking all her stuff off the window sill and killing the plants in the window box, but it sure beat sitting on the front porch for several hours waiting for them to get home from work.

Now that I’m an adult, I rarely forget or lose my keys, but I have managed to lock myself out of a few computers and servers more than a few times.

So the big question is:

How do you let yourself back into your computer without breaking something?

Well, I can’t promise you that you won’t break something, but I can give you some tips on how to hack your way back in:

Please note that these tips are for good guy purposes only, I make no guarantees that these will or won’t work. It’s entirely possible that you could lose all your files by trying these techniques, so use at your own risk. I’m going to guess that if you are reading this page that you are at your wits end and this is a last resort.

One of the best utilities is the Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK). This free (donation-ware) utility can help you recover the administrator password for your computer, recover files, evacuate a dying disk, scan for nasty root kit malware, and perform many other disaster recovery tasks.

The Trinity Rescue Kit can be loaded onto a CD/DVD or USB drive and should run when you boot the computer prior to Windows loading. You must go into your computers setup (bios utility) and choose “Boot from USB/CD/DVD” before you attempt to use this utility. If you don’t set the Boot from USB/CD/DVD, Windows will launch as normal and TRK will not load. Be sure to check your PC’s user manual for details on how to access the BIOS setup / configuration before attempting to use this software.

If this method fails check out this article from 4SYSOPS for several other methods of admin account recovery.

Insert your OS X DVD that came with your computer or use the disk you purchased to upgrade your original OS X and restart your Mac. Hold down the “option” key during the restart until you see the Startup Manager. Double-click the “Install Mac OS X” icon. Once the installer has loaded, choose utilities and then click restart.

After the installer loads, choose “Utilities” and select “Reset Password“. Follow the instructions provided in the utility to reset the admin password.

Restart your Mac and hold down the Command-R keys as soon as the restart begins.

Keep holding the keys until the Apple Logo appears.

The reset password utility is hidden in OS X Lion but is still accessible. After the startup sequence completed your should see the Recovery HD utility. Once in the utility, open a terminal window and type resetpassword and press the return key. Follow the instructions provided in the reset password utility to reset the administrator password.

An Understandable Guide to Everything from Bytes to Yottabytes

Without a doubt, one of the more common technology questions we get asked about surround those data storage metrics, like terabytes, gigabytes, petabytes, megabytes, etc.

You’ve probably heard most of the terms before, but do you know what they mean? How many gigabytes are in a terabyte? What does one terabyte actually mean in the real world? These are all things you need to know before you buy a hard drive or memory card, choose a tablet based on the memory it has, etc.

Fortunately, as confusing as it all might all seem at first glance, all of these units of measurement are easily convertible from one to another, and are simple concepts to grasp thanks to the examples we’ve provided below.

Let’s start with the basics.

Terabytes, Gigabytes, and Petabytes: Which is Bigger?

Right away, knowing which is bigger and which is smaller, as well as the abbreviations that represent these numbers, is probably the most helpful thing to get down.

All of these computer technology storage units of measurement are based on the byte, which the amount of storage required to store a single character of text:

An exabyte (EB) is larger than a…

petabyte (PB), which is larger than a…

terabyte (TB), which is larger than a…

gigabyte (GB), which is larger than a…

megabyte (MB), which is larger than a…

kilobyte (KB), which is larger than a…

byte (B)

Less helpful in the real world is the smaller bit (there are 8 bits in 1 byte) and the larger zettabyte and yottabyte, among some others.

We won’t be sticking yottabyte size memory cards in our cameras anytime soon so consider those some impressive words to throw around at your next party.

To convert from one unit to another, just know that for every level you go up, you multiply by 1,024. Don’t worry if that’s confusing – you’ll see enough examples below that you’ll have the math down in no time.

The table at the bottom of this article is helpful too.

Note: You’ll see many sources online say that each new level is 1,000 times greater than the smaller, not 1,024. While true in some cases, in practical terms, considering how computers use storage devices, 1,024 is the more realistic multiplier to do your calculations with.

How Many Gigabytes (GB) in a Terabyte (TB)?

A TB is 1,024 times bigger than a GB. To convert TB to GB, just take the TB number and multiply by 1,024 to get the number of GBs. To convert GB to TB, just take the GB number and divide by 1,024.

How Many Megabytes (MB) in a Gigabyte (GB)?

There are 1,024 MB in 1 GB

1 GB = 1,024 MB = 1,048,576 KB = 1,073,741,824 B.

Like in the previous example, a GB is 1,024 times bigger than a MB. To convert GB to MB, take the GB number and multiply by 1,024 to get the number of MBs. To convert MB to GB, take the MB number and divide it by 1,024.

How Big is a Terabyte?

The terabyte (TB) is the most common unit used to measure hard drive size and a number you might actually run into from time to time.

A single TB is a lot of space. It’s would take 728,177 floppy disks or 1,498 CD-ROM discs to store just 1 TB worth of information.

As of 2017, most new, average priced computer hard drives were in the 1 to 3 TB range.

]]>http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?feed=rss2&p=7300What is System Restore?http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=727
http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=727#respondSun, 07 May 2017 16:01:13 +0000http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=727Continue reading →]]>Use System Restore to Undo Changes to Important Parts of Windows

System restore is a recovery tool for Windows that allows you to reverse certain kinds of changes made to the operating system.

System Restore is used to return important Windows files and settings – like drivers, registry keys, system files, installed programs, and more – back to previous versions and settings.

Think of System Restore as an “undo” feature for the most important parts of Microsoft Windows.

What System Restore Does

Like I said above, restoring your computer to a previous state only affects Windows files. It’s that type of data that’s normally to blame for issues that would prompt you to use System Restore.

If strange things are happening to your computer after a driver install, for example, you might find that restoring the system to a previous state before the driver install fixes the problem because System Restore will undo the installation.

As another example, say you’re restoring your computer to the state it was in a week ago. Any programs you’ve installed during that time will be uninstalled during the System Restore. It’s important to understand this so you’re not left thinking that your computer is in an even worse state when you discover that a program or two are missing after the restore.

Important: System Restore doesn’t guarantee that the issue will be resolved. Say you’re only just now experiencing an issue with your video card driver, so you restore the computer back to a few days ago, but the problem persists.

It’s possible the driver has corrupted three weeks ago, in which case restoring to just a few days ago, or any point within the last three weeks, will do no good in correcting the problem.

What System Restore Doesn’t Do

You can use System Restore without hesitation even if you’ve just imported a few dozen pictures to your computer – it doesn’t “undo” the import. The same concept applies to downloading files, editing videos, etc. – all of it will stay on your computer.

Note: Even though System Restore may remove a program you’ve installed, it won’t also delete the files you’ve made through the program. For example, even if System Restore deletes your Adobe Photoshop installation, the images you may have created or edited with it are not removed as well – those are still considered your personal files.

Since System Restore doesn’t restore personal files, it is not a fall-back solution if you’ve forgotten to make backups of your data or if you want to undo a change you made to a file. An online backup service or a file backup program is what you need to make backups of your files. However, you may consider System Restore a “system backup” solution because it does, in fact, backup and restore crucial system files.

On that note, System Restore is also not a file recovery utility that lets you “undelete” your files. If you accidentally deleted a folder full of important documents, and you can’t restore it from the Recycle Bin, System Restore is not what you want to use to get those things back.

How To Do a System Restore

The System Restore tool can be accessed from the System Tools program folder in Windows. Once started, this utility is designed as a step-by-step wizard, making it really easy to choose a point in the past, called a restore point, to return your important files and settings to.

Finding somebody’s email address can be difficult. If you know something about the person whose address you are looking for (the name, for example), you can treat this problem of search like any other: pour what you have into a good search engine and hope that it will come up with something relevant.

What is a Web address? What is a URL?

Before jumping right into how to search within a Web address, it’s probably best to understand what a Web address, also known as a URL, really is. URL stands for “Uniform Resource Locator”, and is the address of a resource, file, site, service, etc. on the Internet. For example, the URL of this page that you’re looking at right now is located in the address bar at the top of your browser and should include “websearch.about.com” as the first part of it.

Each website has its own unique Web address assigned to it.

What does it mean to search within a Web address?

You can use the inurl command to tell search engines (this works best with Google at the time of this writing) to look only for web addresses, aka URLs, that include your search terms. You are specifically telling the search engine that you only want to look within the URL – you don’t want to see results from anywhere else BUT the URL. That includes the basic body of content, titles, metadata, etc.

The INURL command: Small, but powerful

In order for this to work, you’ll have to make sure that you keep the following in mind:

If you’re looking for an exact phrase, say, “three blind mice”, you’ll need to remember that Web addresses typically don’t include spaces between words. However, if your query contains a common enough phrase, Google will automatically match results that include common variations. You might have to play with this a little bit in order to make it work how you’d like it to work – remember, while search engines are incredibly advanced, they still require help to understand what you’re looking for.

One of the most relatively unknown benefits of the inurl command within Google is that you can use it to search within directories and sub-directories. For example: say you want to find all possible Contact pages on a popular shopping site. You could try this query in Google: inurl:amazon.com “contact”.

Don’t want certain sites to show up in your search results? You can definitely exclude them, using a simple Boolean math common, aka, the minus sign. For example, say you wanted to search for football information, but you wanted to exclude anything from NFL.com You can try this command: football -inurl:nfl.

Use a search combo to make your queries even more powerful

You can also combine different Google search operators with the inurl: operator to bring back even more filtered results. For example, say you wanted to look for sites with the word “cranberry” in the URL, but only wanted to look at educational sites. Here’s how you could do that:

inurl:cranberry site:.edu

This returns results that have the word “cranberry” in the URL but are limited to .edu domains.

More Google Search Commands

Google Search Commands You Need to Know: While more people use Google than any other search engine on the Web, most do not realize that there is much more to this mammoth search index than meets the eye: an amazing repertoire of specific Google search commands that can help Web searchers find what they’re looking for, fast. Here are 13 Google search commands that will make your searches as efficient as possible.

With today’s technology, we’re taking more photos and videos of moments we want to remember than ever before in history. These memories are ones we want to keep and store safely, so what is the best way to do that? Of course, we have hardware that makes it possible for these images to be backed up safely, but if you’re looking for a backup method that is safe, secure, and in many instances automatic (once set up), then online photo storage sites can be a safe bet.

In addition to storing your photos and videos for secure backup, these sites allow users to upload photos, share images, even share entire image galleries, and for free (users might find that there are certain services that are subscription-based; basic services are free).

For example, some of the most popular digital photo sites allow you to not only upload and share your own images, but you can view literally thousands of beautiful photos, all from the comfort of your own chair.

The Web has made it possible for people all over the world to share and store their digital memories; here are a few of the best free online photo album sites on the Web.

Shutterfly: develop, print and share digital photos. If you decide to become a member, you get more benefits.

Photobucket: Arguably the most popular image hosting and sharing ​site on the Web. Users can upload images and videos, copy links, and then post this content on any website or blog. Easy to use and free.

Flickr: No self-respecting list of photography sites would be complete without Flickr. Quick search tip: type the location you’re thinking of in the search field, and then click “Location” in the drop-down menu.My favorite of all free online photo album sites (membership is free, but if you want to upload more than a set number of photos, you’ll need to become a Pro member). One of my favorite things to do is type in a keyword with Flickr and browse through the truly gorgeous photos there.

WebShots: photo sharing, free wallpaper, and free screensavers here at WebShots; over 300 million photos uploaded at the time of this writing.

SmugMug: unlimited photo sharing with a free trial, and then you’ll have to sign up. If you’re interested, I would suggest taking the SmugMug tour.

SnapFish: free online digital photo sharing. You can also create all sorts of fun gifts with your photos; resize your digital photos online for free and then send them to your friends via email.

Google Photos: Google’s entry into the world of online photo sites. You can use Google Photos to organize, edit, and share your photos; this service also utilizes face recognition technology to automatically tag people in photos so you can search for just the photo you want. Google Photos backs up all your photos safely and automatically, syncing them across different devices. For example, if you take a lot of photos on your phone, you can automatically adjust your settings in Google Photos to upload and store photos every time there is a secure wifi connection (this is so users don’t use up too much mobile data when utilizing this service).

BeFunky: If you’ve been wondering how to fill that empty wall in your house, wonder no more: just head on over to BeFunky and turn your digital photos into seriously fantastic artwork. You can use BeFunky’s filters to turn your uploaded photos into works of art, via a whole menu of special effects.Here’s it works: browse the photos effects to see what you’re in the mood for, browse to the photo you’d like to apply digital effects too, and then play around with the settings.

TrekEarth features gorgeous photos from all over the world, plus, they have an active Forums section so you can improve your own photography.

Panoramio lets you play around with Google Earth (no download needed) to see photos that people have tagged locally.

NOTES: When searching for ancestors, never concentrate solely on one village, or even one parish for that matter. Although it’s commonly thought that people never moved great distances outside their birth village, you will find people often marrying into families in neighboring villages and/or parishes.

Numerus Serialis or Nr. posit. (Serial Number or Position Number)

The priest numbered each marriage record sequentially (1, 2, 3, etc.). Each year the priest started over with number one. This was done to show that no one’s marriage could have been added or removed at a later date.

Note the confusion over the written number of the month, in the case of 7-bris, 8-bris, 9-bris, and 10-bris (or 7ber, 8ber, 9ber, 10ber). These are NOT the numbers correlated to the way we count months today! They are based on the old calendar where the first month of the year wasn’t January, but March. This makes sense if you look at the Latin meaning behind these four months. Study the roots of these months:

“Sept” stands for Seven (7) in Latin. Therefore: 7-bris is September, not July “Octo” stands for Eight (8) in Latin. Think of the word “octagon” “Novem” stands for Nine (9) in Latin. “Decem” stands for Ten (10) in Latin. Think “decade” or “decagram”

Therefore: 8-bris is October, not August 9-bris is November, not September 10-bris is December, not October

Numerus Domus (House Number)

Sponsus (groom) and Sponsa (bride)

Under each of these two main columns are the following columns: Nomen (Name) Religio (Religion) Coelebes/Viduus or Vidua/Aetas (Unmarried/Widower or Widow/Age)

Here is each of the categories listed for both the groom and bride.

Nomen (Name)

Some of the early records of the beginning of the 19th Century list only the groom’s and bride’s name. As the years went on, the priest in the parish (both Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic) began to include more information, such as the parents of the newlyweds.

Sometimes, you may find the priest noted the maiden name of both the groom’s and bride’s mother. For showing maiden names, you may find these various Latin terms: Pay particular attention to the names of the spouses. Remarriage was very popular in the event of a spouse’s death. Reasons based on financial, social and religious well being vary for the individual. The surname listed for the woman may be her maiden name, the surname of her first husband, or the surname of her current husband. In turn, you must be careful of these names in the future. Other information the priest might include, if you’re lucky, pertains to birthplace, current residence, and occupation.

Testes (Witnesses) Testes et Conditio (Witnesses and Occupations)

The priest indicated the name of the witnesses of the marriage, often along with their occupation. Sometimes the priest indicated if the witness was from a different village or parish.

Bottom of the Record

Sometimes a priest wrote a formal statement at the bottom of the marriage record about the marriage agreement. Sometimes, this was not done. Sometimes, the priest simply signed his own name. This statement can be found in Latin, Polish, Ukrainian or even a mix of languages. The priest sometimes included some information here that may not be in the above columns.

This statement often proclaimed that the parents of the newlyweds agree to the marriage. In one case, the name of the father of a groom is not listed in the columns, but appears in the handwritten statement by the priest.

]]>http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?feed=rss2&p=6980How to Interpret a Death Record?http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=695
http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=695#respondTue, 28 Feb 2017 17:31:20 +0000http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=695Continue reading →]]>Standard Entry in a Death Record

The priest was not always correct in the information that he wrote, especially in terms of older people. When you are trying to track down a birth record based on the information you learn here in the death record, do not check only down to the EXACT year or month it would have been. Give yourself some space to check a few years/months before and after this date the priest put on the death record.

Morbus et Qualitas Mortis (Disease or Cause of Death) One will usually find Latin terms, but may find some Polish and/or Ukrainian. The priest did not always include details on the death (nor could not have due to the lack of serious medicine and treatments in the rural villages of earlier centuries). So, one often finds terms such as: Naturalis (Natural) Ordinaria (Ordinary) Variola (Various)

One can easily see the occurrences of epidemics caused by various deadly diseases common to rural areas such as Galicia/Halychyna in earlier centuries. Such deadly diseases are cholera, diphtheria, typhus. Especially sad to see are the diseases that took the lives of so many of the young children, such as scarlet fever (Latin: scarlatina), measles (Latin: morbile)

In addition to the high infancy death rate, one finds a high death rate of women during their child’s birth, listed often in Latin as Partus Difficilis

Bottom of the Record

The priest may have written in the person who buried the remains of the deceased. He often used the term “sep.” followed by the person’s name.

Nomen et cognomen (Name and Family Name) Conditio (Condition, or Profession and other information such as birthplace, current residence or death information). Patrini (Godparents)

__________________________________________________

NOTES: The parish priest kept a record of all baptisms and births in the parish. Before 1784 the records for all the villages in the parish were kept together. However, after 1784, records for each particular village were kept separately. They may have been bound in the same book, but a separate listing for each village was organized alphabetically by village, year by year.

When searching for ancestors, never concentrate solely on one village, or even one parish for that matter. Although it’s commonly thought that people never moved great distances outside their birth village, you will find people often marrying into families in neighboring villages and/or parishes.

Numerus Serialis or Nr. posit. (Serial Number or Position Number)

Often the first column to the left is found the Serial or Position Number. The priest numbered each record of baptism/birth sequentially: (1, 2, 3, etc.). Each year the priest started over with number one. This was done to show that no one’s name could have been added or removed at a later date.

You should note both of these dates and not just the birth. Make sure that you mark it correctly as either the birth or the baptism, depending on which one of the two is present.

Be careful when noting the month and year. Often the month and year is not written for each and every person’s listing, only the date. Carefully backtrack to the last month and year listed. Do so carefully so as to not skip a month or year and mark the wrong one down. Be careful of this especially when researching at an archive where photocopying is not available. Unlike using microfilm at a local Family History Center, you may not easily have a chance to return to the originals to verify your note-taking.

The months will usually be in Latin. This should not be a problem if the month is written out as the Latin resembles the English. In older Greek Catholic records, you may find the month in Church Slavic. Again, this will be easy IF you can read the Cyrillic alphabet since the Church Slavic terms also resemble the English. For a list of months in different languages

English

Latin

Polish

Ukrainian (Cyrillic)

Ukrainian (transliterated)

January

Januarius (Ianuarius)

styczeń

січень

sichen’

February

Februarius

luty

лютий

liutyi

March

Martius

marzec

березень

berezen’

April

Aprilis

kwiecień

квітень

kviten’

May

Maius (Majus)

maj

травень

traven’

June

Junius (Iunius)

czerwiec

червень

cherven’

July

Julius (Iulius)

lipiec

липень

lypen’

August

Augustus

sierpień

серпень

serpen’

September

September

wrzesień

вересень

veresen’

October

October

październik

жовтень

zhovten’

November

November

listopad

листопад

lystopad

December

December

grudzień

грудень

hruden’

Numerus Domus (House Number)

One of the most interesting features of the records from Galicia/Halychyna during the years of the Austrian rule (1772 – 1918) is the House Number.

The House Number is the number of the house where the particular event took place, e.g.. birth, marriage or death. One can quickly run down this column and look for specific house numbers to easily find ancestors. Also, it’s a great way to track movement of families within the village.

Often, a house was occupied by several families. One can easily find other families living in the same house as your own ancestors. This clue would take you to research that other family’s line back to see if there is a connection to your own family. Without seeing the House Number, you might not have known to take this course of action.

House Numbers were usually assigned chronologically, with No. 1 being in the center of the village or near the church or at one end of the village. The numbers increase as they numbered the houses out from the center or church or across to the other end of the village.

As a new house was built, it got the next number in sequential order. As you can imagine, soon the order of the numbering lost it’s specific geographic location. So, House Number 95 may be on the opposite side of the village from House Number 96. Earlier numbers, though, maybe next to each other if the houses were next to each other at the time the numbering system for that village was developed.

There are certain misconceptions about the House Number that must be mentioned. One should not jump to conclusions or over estimate the real value. Keep in mind that many births occurred at a neighbor’s, relative’s or even the midwife’s house. Therefore, the house number that was recorded by the parish priest on the record may not necessarily be the family’s home.

For marriage records, many times only one House Number was written down by the priest, usually the groom’s House Number.

Nomen Baptisati (Name of Baptized)

This is the name of the person born and baptized. Sometimes a person was given two names. This was not a common custom, but can be seen occurring in the middle to late 19th Century. This was noted by the priest in Latin “binom” or “binominus”. This is NOT two different children, but one and the same child.

Twins were noted by the term “gemelli” if they were two boys or one boy and one girl. The term “gemellae” was used if both were girls. Usually, each of the twins would have a godfather and godmother. (Sometimes, even more than one of each!)

Next to the name you may find a drawn cross. This means that the newborn died shortly after birth. It may be the same day or even weeks later. The specific date can only be determined by studying the Death Records for the same village and parish. Sometimes, a date was added right next to the cross signifying the date of death.

This is self explanatory. Sometimes, you may find the abbreviation “r.l.” or “r.g.” in this column or next to the person’s name. “r.l.” stands for Latin Rite (or Roman Catholic) and “r.g.” stands for Greek Rite (or Greek Catholic/Ukrainian Catholic).

Sexus (Sex) Puer/Puella (Boy/Girl)

This is self explanatory. This information can be used to help you identify the sex of the name, which may be useful to someone not familiar with Latin (or Polish/Ukrainian) first names.

Thori or Legitimi/Illegitimi (Legitimate/Illegitimate Status)

In the case of illegitimate births, the father’s name was not listed. It either will not be listed at all or it may read “Pater Ignotus” (meaning “Unknown Father” in English). Everyone in the village, including the priest, may have known who the real father is, but since the document is legal both in terms of state and church law, the father can not be proven of the birth of a child to an unwed mother.

Parentes (Parents) Or Pater (Father)/ Mater (Mother) sometimes included Conditio (literally Condition, or Profession) and other information such as birthplace, current residence or death information.

Here the priest listed the names of the parents.

Records vary greatly, from year to year, priest to priest and parish to parish, as the extent of names, generations, professions, and other information written down.

Sometimes, only the father’s and mother’s first name with the father’s surname is listed. This makes for difficult research, especially along the mother’s line. Sometimes, the parents of the parents’ names are given, both with the maiden names of the women, or without.

Ivan Iwanchuk son of Prokopyi and Maria. Mother: Fevronia daughter of Hryhoryi and Oryna. local farmers.

For showing maiden names, you may find these various Latin terms:

Anna de Majewska

de “of”

Anna de domo Majewska or Majewskich

de domo “of the house of”

Anna ex Majewski

ex “from”

Anna nata Majewska

nata “born (with the maiden name)”

Patrini (Godparents) Sometimes includes Conditio (Profession)

The priest wrote down the names of the Godparents, at least one Godfather and one Godmother. In some cases there may have been more than one. One can check for connections between the family of the newborn and the Godparents. Of course, this can be difficult due to the lack of information on the Godparents provided. (As noted before, there is a great possibility that there were several people in the same village with the same exact name, even with the same age.) However, the Godparents can lead to clues and further research on your family history.

Note that the married Godmother’s maiden name is not usually given. Sometimes, her husband is listed with the Latin phrase “uxor“, meaning “spouse of…”

Also, it is important to note that each godparent usually has an “X” mark next to his/her name. This does not mean “deceased” as in the case of the newborn. Here the Cross symbolizes that he/she is a baptized Christian.

Bottom Line of Record

Also found within the baptismal/birth record is some other information that you may find interesting, if not helpful.

Obstetrix (Midwife) sometimes abbreviated as “Obs.”

Obstrx et supra: In stead of writing the same information over and over again, the priest may have written “ut supra” or “qui supra” which means that this information is repeated from the line above.

Name of Priest who performed the baptism. There is sometimes an additional statement written by the priest: “Ego to baptizo in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti” “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”.

The priest may sign his name.

You may find these Latin terms: In absteto: Another priest, either from a neighboring village or different Rite.

]]>http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?feed=rss2&p=6880Citizenship and Naturalization Recordshttp://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=685
http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=685#respondSat, 25 Feb 2017 19:54:26 +0000http://www.onyschuk.com/wordpresstugg/?p=685Continue reading →]]>From 1763 until the Canadian Citizenship Act came into force on January 1, 1947, people born in Canada were all British subjects. Since immigrants born in Great Britain and the Commonwealth were already British subjects, they had no need to become naturalized or to obtain British citizenship in Canada.

A number of earlier laws governed naturalization before 1947. Under these acts, aliens could petition for naturalization. If successful, they would swear allegiance to the British sovereign and would be granted the rights of someone born within the British Empire. These acts include:

The Local Act also known as Law of Naturalization and Allegiance implemented on May 22, 1868.

The Naturalization and Aliens Act of 1881 by which the Secretary of State was empowered to issue naturalization certificates to government employees. All other requests for naturalization were handled by provincial courts.

The Naturalization Act of 1914 which gave full responsibility for the issuance of naturalization certificates to the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration, implemented in 1916.

In order to apply for citizenship, a person had to have resided in Canada for a minimum number of years since his or her time of entry.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada holds records of naturalization and citizenship from 1854 to the present. The originals of records dated between 1854 and 1917 have been destroyed. However, a card index by name has survived, which provides information compiled at the time of naturalization, such as:

present and former place of residence;

former nationality;

occupation;

date of certification; and

name and location of the responsible court.

The index rarely contains any other genealogical information. Please note that Library and Archives Canada does not hold a copy of that card index.

Records created after 1917 are more detailed, indicating:

surname;

given name;

date and place of birth;

entry into Canada; and

names of spouses and children.

The file will typically include the original petition for naturalization, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police report on the person, the oath of allegiance, and any other documents.

Requests for searches of naturalization/citizenship indexes and records from 1854 to the present should be signed and mailed to:

The application for copies of records should indicate that it is being requested under Access to Information. It must be submitted by a Canadian citizen or an individual residing in Canada. For non-citizens, you can hire a freelance researcher to make the request on your behalf. Fee: $5.00, payable to the Receiver General for Canada.

The request must be accompanied by a signed consent from the person concerned or proof that he/she has been deceased 20 years.

Proof of death can be a copy of a death record, a newspaper obituary or a photograph of the gravestone showing name and death date.

Proof of death is not required if the person would be over 110 years of age.

Your request should include the full name, date and place of birth, and if possible, the Canadian citizenship number or naturalization certificate number.

Important Note: To request a search of your own records for proof of your status or to obtain a citizenship certificate, you must submit an Application for a Search of Citizenship Records or an Application for a Citizenship Certificate to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.